Comments on: Search Was Our Social Glue. But That Is Dissolvinghttp://battellemedia.com/archives/2008/10/search_was_our_social_glue_but_that_is_dissolving.php
Thoughts on the intersection of search, media, technology, and more.Thu, 17 Nov 2016 05:16:00 +0000hourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.1By: Joao Dubeux Kawamurahttp://battellemedia.com/archives/2008/10/search_was_our_social_glue_but_that_is_dissolving.php#comment-6312
Thu, 23 Oct 2008 12:37:04 +0000http://battellemedia.com/archives/2008/10/search_was_our_social_glue_but_that_is_dissolving.php#comment-6312wow! It is an interesting point of view.

On the other end of this scale, I could argue that the tendency for personalization is the final delivery of the long tail, where search truly differentiates itself from
mass media business, such as television. And – make no mistake – search is a media business. ( another interesting question is wether it really should be, but thats beside the point).

And the fundamental point – by bringing the business outside of the content itself, search has the incredible potential of really deliver culture, and not just theodor adorno’s cultural industry.

Now, I am not a school of frankfurt guy to the letter, while I believe the cultural industry is harmful, a balance between mass media is good, as you call it, as a social glue. I see the JG comment about television, and it pretty much nailed the point concerning mainstream TV as social aggregation. You know what’s interesting? Here in brazil, lots of people who have 800 channels and tivo,
wouldn’t miss the #1 mainstream tv show, so they can socialize at the water cooler, quoting JG. We praise freedom as the cornerstone of western civilization, shouldn’t we let society regulate itself ? wouldn’t people gravitate towards mass media content, once they feel the need for the social glue?

The burning question is, and I would love to hear your take on this, what kind of mechanisms would be legitimate and effective to achieve balance between the two?

]]>By: kabinhttp://battellemedia.com/archives/2008/10/search_was_our_social_glue_but_that_is_dissolving.php#comment-6311
Mon, 20 Oct 2008 08:32:38 +0000http://battellemedia.com/archives/2008/10/search_was_our_social_glue_but_that_is_dissolving.php#comment-6311harika bir paylaşım olmuş eline sağlık.
]]>By: john battellehttp://battellemedia.com/archives/2008/10/search_was_our_social_glue_but_that_is_dissolving.php#comment-6310
Sun, 19 Oct 2008 18:26:19 +0000http://battellemedia.com/archives/2008/10/search_was_our_social_glue_but_that_is_dissolving.php#comment-6310All – I wrote something on this this weekend, but it won’t go up for a bit (it’s for the Looksmart series). But I have a lot more to say. I’m not being Cass, in fact, I see a big opportunity here…
]]>By: dominichttp://battellemedia.com/archives/2008/10/search_was_our_social_glue_but_that_is_dissolving.php#comment-6309
Sun, 19 Oct 2008 05:25:33 +0000http://battellemedia.com/archives/2008/10/search_was_our_social_glue_but_that_is_dissolving.php#comment-6309What you call personalization is actually socialization.

From the point of view of the writer, the audience is no longer the universal web, but a myriad of communities.

The web used to be one community now it’s millions each contextualizing language.

The semantic web is not going to adress that complexity.

Now is time to come back to the blank sheet of paper with (my option), revisiting the ass-ness of Language.

Language speaks us (Heidegger).

]]>By: Matthttp://battellemedia.com/archives/2008/10/search_was_our_social_glue_but_that_is_dissolving.php#comment-6308
Sun, 19 Oct 2008 01:54:11 +0000http://battellemedia.com/archives/2008/10/search_was_our_social_glue_but_that_is_dissolving.php#comment-6308The “glue” you speak of just moves from the search engine to the actual sites being a common reference point.
]]>By: Josh Braunhttp://battellemedia.com/archives/2008/10/search_was_our_social_glue_but_that_is_dissolving.php#comment-6307
Sat, 18 Oct 2008 21:56:59 +0000http://battellemedia.com/archives/2008/10/search_was_our_social_glue_but_that_is_dissolving.php#comment-6307Ack! You’re beginning to sound like Cass Sunstein. You used to be such a great intellectual foil for him, what with your optimistic vision of personalized TV commercials and broadband/search-enabled refrigerators. Is this the rise of the cyber-balkans on SearchBlog?
]]>By: JGhttp://battellemedia.com/archives/2008/10/search_was_our_social_glue_but_that_is_dissolving.php#comment-6306
Sat, 18 Oct 2008 21:49:44 +0000http://battellemedia.com/archives/2008/10/search_was_our_social_glue_but_that_is_dissolving.php#comment-6306You mean like how there used to be 3 television channels in the 1950s, and so you were pretty much guaranteed to be able to approach someone at the water cooler and laugh about a shared experience watching the Honeymooners the night before? But now that there are 800 channels, and everyone has Tivo, so that even if you are watching the same show you might be days or even weeks apart by the time you and your water cooler buddy see it, we no longer have those shared social glue moments?

Yeah, I can see the analogy, see how you could think that.

But I don’t think it’s an issue. At least not yet. As far as I can tell, Google is taking such a light-handed approach to personalization, despite all the hype, the years of effort, and the 7,000 PhD they’ve got working on it, that it really isn’t changing that many results lists, that often, that much.

To continue the analogy, the current state of results list personalization technology is like going from 3 television channels to 4. There is a slight spread in the viewer distribution, but not much. It certainly isn’t like going to 800.

This is one reading or personalization: you have personally chosen to put on blinders. From this point of view, you are disappointing users who might be expecting a blog that is about “search” (in general) and not merely about “Google” (in particular). This is a personal choice — so does that mean it’s a “personalized” configuration of your blog?

Another example: If I prefer Firefox to Internet Explorer, is that a matter of “personalization” of my desktop?

How about wearing sneakers and jeans instead of a suit and tie? Where does personalization begin? Where does it end? Does “have it your way” mean that because I have “personalized” my geographical location, that the sun rises just for me, personally?